Hospital Facing Complaints For Refusing To Conduct Tubal Ligation To A Woman At High Pregnancy Risk

A hospital that has reportedly refused to conduct tubal ligation to a woman from Michigan is now facing complaints before the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights. Jessica Mann, who was pregnant with her third child, was advised by her doctors to have her tubes tied during a planned cesarian delivery since her brain tumor could become life-threatening if she gets pregnant again.

The complaint against Ascension Health and Genesys Health System was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on grounds of sexual discrimination. By refusing to provide the tubal ligation procedure to Mann, complainants said they denied necessary healthcare access specifically needed only by women and is considered sexual discrimination.

Yahoo reported that the Genesys Health System located at Grand Blanc in Michigan is near Mann's home, which is why she decided to give birth there. With the proliferation of Catholic Hospitals lately, it has become difficult to determine if a hospital is already bound by the religious system's rules.

Tubal ligation is also considered intrinsically evil by religious people as it is a birth control method and has been prohibited by the said hospital that denied Mann. Genesys belongs to the Ascension Health, the country's largest healthcare system, which follows a set of rules mandated by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops known as the Ethical and Religious Directives.

Tubal ligation is frequently performed at the time of a C-section delivery for women who request the procedure. It is deemed the safest and most effective to have both surgeries performed at once and for a woman to not be subjected to two separate surgeries and the accompanying anesthesia.

Tubal ligation according to WebMD is a procedure that blocks the fallopian tubes of a woman through surgery. Such procedure prevents the passage of the eggs and ultimately its fertilization by a sperm. Tubal ligation is considered a method that prevents a woman from getting pregnant permanently.

Washington Post said Mann's case is just one of the many cases where hospitals turn away reproductive-related medical conditions that are specific to women. This has caught the attention of women's rights groups considering the lack of healthcare options available in rural areas especially, when it comes to low-income women.